Perfect icing can be a challenge, but with Paweł’s universal recipe, creating exceptional decorations will be pure pleasure. Be sure to check out how easy and quick it is to decorate cookies!
Ingredients:
Decoration:
- White sugar paste – 1 piece
- Blue sugar paste – 50 g
Icing Base:
- Eggs – 3
- Powdered sugar – 400 g
- Lemon juice – 1 tablespoon
Natural Food Coloring:
- Beetroot – 1
- Lemon juice – 1 tablespoon
- Baby spinach – a handful
Preparation:
Step 1: Whip the Icing
Place powdered sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl. Start the mixer on the lowest setting and begin whipping the icing. After about 1 minute, add a few drops of lemon juice for flavor. Whip the icing for about 6-8 minutes until it reaches the desired consistency resembling toothpaste.
Step 2: Color the Icing
Divide the prepared icing into several portions and color them as desired by mixing selected natural food coloring with white icing. Leave some icing white, as this color will also look beautiful on cookies.
Tip! Usually, 1 small teaspoon of natural food coloring is enough to achieve a delicate shade.
Step 3: Transfer the Icing to Piping Bags
Fill piping bags with the prepared icing and remove any air from them so that the icing flows all the way to the tips of the bags.
Tip! The easiest way to remove air is to hold the open end of the bag, wrap it to prevent the icing from coming out, and vigorously swirl it like a helicopter blade.
Tip! If you decide to decorate cookies with icing only, it’s worth dividing the color you want to use as the background into two piping bags.
Step 4: Decorate the Cookies with Icing Only
Trim the ends of the piping bags with icing in the color chosen for the background, so that one bag has a very small hole and the other a larger one.
First, using the piping bag with the smaller hole, delicately outline the edges of the cookie. Then, using the bag with the larger hole, ice the center of the cookie.
Tip! Let the decorated cookies stand overnight before further decorating to allow them to dry. Alternatively, preheat the oven to about 30°C and dry the cookies in it for about 45 minutes, removing them only when the icing is completely dry.
Once the cookies are dry, decorate them as desired with colorful icings, using piping bags with small cut holes.
Step 5: Decorate the Cookies with Sugar Paste and Icing
Warm the sugar paste in your hands and roll it out on a surface dusted with powdered sugar. Using the same cookie cutters as for the gingerbread cookies, cut out shapes from the sugar paste. Then, cover the cookies with a bit of icing and stick the cut-out shapes onto them.
Decorate the prepared cookies as desired with colorful icings.
